I remember vividly the first time I tried shrimp. It had always been on my “yucky” list, for no other reason than that it looked yucky. But on a school trip, we happened to stop at a seafood restaurant and I decided to be uncharacteristically adventurous. I ordered the Surf and Turf (just to have a backup food, in case the shrimp was a bust), but from my first bite, I was like, “This is amazing! How have I not been eating this my whole life? I must now have shrimp on every possible occasion!” (I had that experience with quite a few foods, it turns out, but shrimp was sort of a gateway drug.)
In any case, for no apparent reason other than that Somebody Said So, May 10 is National Shrimp Day. I suppose that makes it a good day to stream Forrest Gump and enjoy a delicious crustacean boiled, fried, baked, as part of a nice gumbo, or in any of innumerable other forms.
